kevin_standlee | Entries tagged with finncon

Turning to one of my other corporate hats, this year's Science Fiction & Fantasy Translation Awards were announced earlier today at Finncon in Tampere, Finland. Cheryl Morgan (one of the Awards' board members, as I am) was there along with Awards jury member Irma Hirsjärvi. (Neither Cheryl nor I are involved in the actual selection of the award winners; we deal with the administration stuff that keeps the awards running. I, for instance, am the secretary/treasurer of the Awards' non-profit corporation. That means that in a few days I'll be cutting checks to the winners as part of the awards.)

Because of her involvement with Finncon, where she is very busy, Cheryl wasn't able to sit in on the conference call for SFSFC's board of directors today. Nobody faults her for that. Indeed, many of us wish we were there with her, as Finncon sounds like tremendously good fun, although there is at least one SFSFC board member (who shall remain unnamed) who was unaware of just how huge Finncon is. Ah, if we could only somehow secure that kind of state funding for a Worldcon!

Current Mood: pleased
Current Location: Yuba City, California

Ellen Datlow has published a whole lot of FinnCon photos, including a bunch of the anime costumes and the convention guests, including Cheryl.

Current Mood: pleased
Current Location: Jyväskylä, Finland

This would appear to be the final report from Finland. Wish I could have gone myself. It's not like I was doing much this past weekend.

Monday was spent sampling more of the excellent Finnish trains, shopping for souvenirs (I bought a snowball) and eating things you can't get back home (dessert made from Seabuckthorn berries).

Of course the Finns are not immune from trying to import US culture. Near the hotel where Ellen and the Haldemans are staying we found a place call Right Wing Sports Bar. Whether this referred to a position on the field or to the attitudes of the people who drank there was unclear. However, they did advertise a Joe Montana Burger, so any visiting registered Democrats could point to this and explain that in San Francisco being a Democrat *is* right wing.

Current Location: Helsinki, Finland

This is a big one. I go away to run some errands for a few hours and suddenly con reports start flying into my e-mailbox. They must have had the Internet Pedal Trolls working overtime for this one.

The con is now over, and has been a great success. Because Finncon is free, it is hard to judge numbers, but all of the 5,000 program books that were printed have been taken by someone. The guests have been talking about coming back as attendees next year.

I had a light load of panels today. I listened to Liz Hand's GoH interview and then we went for lunch at the Mexican-Asian-Italian restaurant (which is across the road from the sex shop). After that Liz did a Kaffeklatsch in the pub and I pottered around doing bits and pieces until it was time for the final panel.

It has rained quite a bit, which was sad because the anime hordes got their costumes soggy. It also discouraged nice folks standing outside the convention center with signs saying "free hugs".

In the UK the fans drink the bar dry of real ale. In Finland the teenage cat girls eat the convention out of chocolate.

It looks like Chris Bell will make it home. Rumors that she was applying for political asylum in Finland are untrue. But she did need a lot of work done on the car before it would have been safe to head back through Europe.

This year's wrap panel was called "The Heinlein Legacy". I told the Finns lots of interesting things about Heinlein that they did not previously know. Thankfully they didn't take any of my bits seriously, but listened mostly to Clute, Jonathan Clements and Joe Haldeman instead. (Heinlein was responsible for the fashion for giant fighting robots in Japan - who knew?)

And then, finally, it was time to go back in the sauna. This being Finncon, all of the beer at the dead dog had been donated by a sponsor. If only they could get someone to sponsor heating up the lake it would be perfect.

Oh, and the chipotle vodka went down very well. No one died.

Current Location: Jyväskylä, Finland

Well, this one certainly is from Cheryl, although she didn't write it. Apparently the Finnish filkers wrote a song for each GoH. Here's the one they wrote about her:

500 Cons (to the tune of 500 Miles)

If you miss the con she's on
you can meet her at next con
Cheryl Morgan seems to visit every one.
She gives there a talk or few,
was seen tossing Jordan, too
and with her we always all have so much fun.

Travelling across the globe,
visiting the cons of old,
seeing fandom at its worst and at its best.
Moving on from con to con,
catch her now, 'cause soon she's gone,
so much travelling does not give her much rest.

She is one, she is two, she is three, she is four,
she is 500 cons away from home.
Away from home, away from home.
away from home, away from home,
she is 500 cons away from home.

Current Mood: amused
Current Location: Jyväskylä, Finland

Cheryl wrote to me today to say there are more photos of FinnCon available, including some nice costumes.

The Finns still want to know who is responsible for those weird con reports. She's told them that it must have been Chris Garcia making things up again. Now they are all going to vote Chris for TAFF so that they can have a quiet word with him....

Current Location: Jyväskylä, Finland

I got an e-mail from Cheryl today expressing surprise to hear of reports that some claim to be from her appearing on my LJ. (I take it from the comments on the entries that some folks in Finland have spotted them and came looking for Cheryl.) She denies everything. She does, however, have some photos including something about a train and St. Petersburg. Very strange....

Current Mood: amused
Current Location: Finland

Now that the convention has actually started, the amount of news appears to be increasing.

The con is now underway. I have been on duty at the academic conference, and at the writers' meeting where we had two excellent panels. We have declared Judith Clute's art exhibition open. We dined on reindeer and snails. The ice hockey tournament is now in full swing.

I've spoken briefly to Joe. He seems pretty much unscathed after his unfortunate experiences in France. He says they kept trying to torture him by force-feeding him French food and wine while showing him photographs of McDonalds. Somehow he managed to survive.

Because we are so close to the Arctic Circle it never gets dark here at night. This means that the con can run all through the night hours. This is fine for the Finns, who from an early age have become used to hibernating through the winter and staying awake all summer. Us guests are going to be consuming a lot of caffeine and will be very relieved on Sunday night when we can go to sleep.

Current Location: Jyväskylä, Finland

I've received clarification that, in the previous dispatch, what I'd thought was a steam-powered internet connection was actually the sauna. The internet connection is pedal powered. But they have tame trolls to do the pedaling so it is OK.

We had a very splendid sauna last night, followed by the obligatory skinny-dipping in the nearby lake. We had to look out for Jonathan Clements though - Finnish trolls have a bad habit of trying to catch young men who are about to be married and drowning them, and we would not want anything to happen to the poor boy.

The convention starts around 11:00am with another press conference. Joe will miss it - he has to stay in Helsinki for a few hours to get a medal for his part in defeating the French terrorists. Today's proceedings are mainly for academics and authors, which is just as well because most of the Finnish fans are busy training for tonight's ice-hockey tournament.

Current Location: Jyväskylä, Finland

Having managed to find her way to a steam-powered internet connection, our correspondent reports:

Good news: Joe Haldeman is free. We were worried for a time. His flight from Boston to Helsinki involved a change of planes in Paris. When it because known that a famous American war hero would be traveling through their country, a group of French terrorists decided to kidnap him. They were refusing to let him go until the USA agreed to start calling Freedom Fries French Fries again. Thankfully, as Joe's trip to Finncon was being paid for by the Finnish Arts Ministry, we had access to help in the highest places. A team of crack Finnish commandos launched a daring raid on Charles De Gaulle Airport, freeing Joe and his fellow passengers. Joe has now arrived safely in Finland only a day late, and will be at the con in time for his first panel tomorrow afternoon (much to the relief of Liz Hand and I who thought we might have to do it all by ourselves).

Current Location: Jyväskylä, Finland

From Darkest Somerset to Lightest (it being midsummer and near the Arctic Circle) Finland, we bring you the first of what I hope to be several dispatches from our continental correspondent attending the Finnish National Science Fiction Convention.

As you know, this year's Finncon is taking place in St. Petersburg, a small Baltic city annexed by the Finns during the Russo-Finnish War of 1939-40. Due to the proximity to the Russian border, we are expecting several thousand Russian SF fans to attend. Today, however, we are in Helsinki where we will be attending a press conference for the Finnish media, following which we, and a large contingent of Finnish fans, will be traveling on to the convention by luxury train.

Current Location: Jyväskylä, Finland

A little while ago, I got e-mail from Cheryl advising me that despite the attempts of the British rail network to stop her getting to Heathrow, she has safely arrived in Finland, where she will be one of the guests of FinnCon this weekend. More news from her as it develops.